Star Trek: Legacy - hands-on

Space war - the final frontier

If there's one thing Star Trek is known for, it's talking. Lots of serious-sounding, sleep-inducing talking that excites fans but puts everyone else to sleep. How can they spend so much time making peace when they're sitting inside some of the biggest, most heavily armed spaceships ever made?

Thankfully, Star Trek: Legacy skips the diplomacy and slaps you in the captain's chair - all of them. You'll play through each Trek era, from Archer to Kirk to Picard, blasting a path through the final frontier with every ship the Federation has to offer. As you progress, better ships and tech become available, eventually transforming your clunker into a sleek and sexy Sovereign-class beauty.

Our first foray into Legacy put us in control of four ships (including a Voyager look-alike) tasked with defending Deep Space Nine from a Romulan invasion. With free movement in 3D space, we had several methods to consider, the most obvious of which was to go in, phasers blazing. But thanks to a tactical map, we could assign orders out to our three other ships and spread out the enemy fleet. Then, choosing the gun-heavy Defiant from our personal armada, we started launching torpedoes.

And that's a fair comparison to make, as these boaty spaceships handle more like sea-worthy battleships than X-Wings. You can cycle through targets with the push of a button, but you'll need more oceanic thinking to win - aiming for the broad, unprotected side of a ship's hull is better than a head-on shootout. It's a little slow and plodding, but more or less accurate.